Family Lost, Comfort Found
by Breathtaking Chaos
Summary: Seamus Finnegan is dead to the world. Pissed in a Muggle pub ten years after the Final Battle. But why? Written for the Mood Ring Competition on HPFC One-Shot


Written for the Mood Ring Competition on HPFC.

Color- Peach. Comforting

Characters- Cho Chang and Seamus Finnegan

Prompt- Firewhiskey

Family Lost, Comfort Found

By Breathtaking Chaos

Ten years after the Final Battle, Seamus Finnigan could be found passed out at a muggle pub called The Hose. Who he would be found by was the real question.

Seamus had retreated into a shall after the battle. His family had been killed by Death Eaters and he was the only one left. At first, he would only get drunk sometimes, using it was a refuge from the pain. He slowly evolved into an Alcoholic, getting pissed every Friday to drown the pain from the past and the stress from his low paying agricultural job

He was less likely to be found at the Muggle pub near his home, so he went there every week. Everyone knew him, and the bartender, a tough but caring woman named Maria, was worried for him, drinking away his life.

Maria was a Muggleborn witch who had fled the Wizarding world when Voldemort had come back in Harry Potter's fourth year. She believed Harry's stories, and knew she was in danger. She was 17 then. Now she lived as a Muggle, and in her new life, she was comfortable. When Voldemort had been defeated, she reacclimated herself to the world of magic, but still stayed, for the most part, in the Muggle world.

She had become friends with Cho Chang, whom she had bumped into at at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, and they had shared an ice cream. A close friendship evolved from that. They sent owls every week, and when Cho got a cellphone, they spoke every day.

So when she saw Seamus Finnigan passed out in her bar top, tears leaking from his eyes, she knew who to call.

Cho picked up at the first ring. "Hello?"

"Cho, it's Maria."

"Oh, Maria! What brings you to call so late? Is something wrong? Are you okay?" asked Cho, worry creeping into her voice.

"I'm fine," reassured Maria. "But the wizard passed out on my counter isn't."

"What?" asked Cho, puzzled.

"Seamus Finnigan. Only man who's ever walked into my pub, my perfectly Muggle pub, asking for a Firewhiskey."

"Seamus?" exclaimed Cho incredulously. "At your pub?"

"Yeah," said Maria. "He needs someone to talk to, and I'm not the girl for the job. I was gone by the time You-Know-Who came to power again. I won't understand."

"Wait, you're asking me to come and talk to him?"

"Yes, Cho. Please? For me?"

"Fine," conceded Cho. "I'm on my way."

"Thanks, hon," said Maria, before hanging up.

Cho arrived in minutes. When she saw Seamus' prone form unconscious on the bar counter, she rushed over. Looking up at Maria, she pleaded, "What do I do?"

"I don't know. You're the Ravenclaw," shrugged Maria. When Cho glared at her, she sighed and said, "Look, take him back to your place, clean him up, let him sleep on your couch. Give him a Hangover potion when he wakes up. Than talk to him. He needs to let his pain out, and I'm not someone who can help."

Cho nodded, and grabbed Seamus, draping his arm around her neck. If she hadn't been a Chaser in her younger years, his large frame would have crushed her. Even so, it was hard for her to stay upright under his large, muscular frame. With a louder than normal crack, she disapparated to her home.

Laying him on her couch, she sat him upright and peeled off his sweat soaked shirt. he had, at the very least, been thinking when he went to The Hose and worn Muggle clothes. Feeling awkward but determined, Cho went on instinct and went to her kitchen to got a bowl of warm water and a soft cloth.

Cho cleaned Seamus quietly, wiping off dirt and grime, revealing his pale, underfed form. He clearly hadn't been eating well the past few months. Cho hadn't known Seamus well, but to her, he had always been the loud, brash Gryffindor boy in the year below. Whatever had started him down this spiral, she knew it couldn't be good.

When he was finally clean, she noticed the bruises that covered his arms. She tried simple healing spells, but they didn't work. Beginning to worry, she looked through her library, digging out a book on healing spells. Flipping through, she found an old spell that looked like it would work.

She whispered over Seamus, "Antoni." The bruised faded. Satisfied with her work, she draped a blanked over him. Cho went to bed, hoping her house guest would be okay.

***  
Cho woke the next morning to a loud thump. Rushing to her living room, she found Seamus groaning on the floor. Rushing up, she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Fine," grunted Seamus. "But where the bloody hell am I?"

Semus had woken up when he had fallen off something, and his view was fuzzy. He had no idea where he was, and his pounding headache wasn't doing anything to help.

"At my place. Maria, the bartender of The Hose, asked me to come get you. You were stone cold drunk."

Seamus' view began to clear. "Cho? Is that you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, thanks for taking me. I hope I didn't cause any trouble."

"No, I just set you on my couch and threw you a blanket," said Cho, not mentioning that she had cleaned him and healed his bruises.

"Thanks," said Seamus greatfully. "Happen to have any Hangover potion?" he asked, groaning and clutching his head.

"Oh, yeah," said Cho, running to her kitchen and retuning with a vial of blue potion. Seamus quickly downed it."

"Thanks, again," said Seamus, sighing as the pain receded.

"Seamus," began Cho tentatively. "What's wrong? Something happened to you."

Seamus' demeanor immediately changed, and he looked down. "Nothing. I'm fine."

Cho knew, somewhere deep inside her, that he wasn't 'fine'. "Seamus," she whispered, lifting his chin up to look at her. "You're not fine. Something happened. I just want to help."

"You can't!" exploded Seamus suddenly and unexpectedly. "Not unless you can Bering my family back from the dead!" He was standing, yelling at Cho. "Not unless you can go back in time and save my entire family from being murdured by Death Eaters!"

Cho realized what had happened to him. "Seamus," she said, voice still at a whisper. Standing, she placed a hand gently on his back. "I had the same thing happen. I don't have any family."

Seamus immediately sobered, anger dissipating. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't know." He leaned into her. Cho rubbed calming circles on his back.

"No, it's okay. You couldn't have," said Cho reassuringly, seating them both on the couch. Leaning her head on his bare chest, she felt his heartbeat, thumping against her cheek.

He unconsciously laid his hand on her head, plating with a strand of her hair. They sat there in silence, comforting each other in a way only people who have lost and survived are able to. When Seamus left her home that night, with a promise to see her in a week, they had both changed for the better.


End file.
